Graduate School « Global and Area Studies » (Germany)

The Graduate School Global and Area Studies (GSGAS) at Leipzig University invites young scholars from all over the world to join a fascinating project that is global in scope and inter- as well as post-disciplinary in its orientation. We are looking for original contributions by excellent PhD-candidates from all kinds of area studies, history, the social science as well as international studies searching for a comprehensive answer to the general question of how societies across the globe react to the dialectics of de- and re-territorialization. What we are interested in is the persistence of long-lasting and the emergence of new spatial frameworks for social interaction within and between cultures, nations and regional clusters of states.

The approach the Graduate School is based upon has been developed over the past ten years. It is unique in its emphasis on a combination of global and transnational history on the one hand and international, area and transregional studies on the other, including the investigation of commodity chains, international organizations, migration systems and cultural transfers in the study of critical junctures of globalization.

What we provide is a well structured teaching programme and competent individual supervision as well as the opportunity to interact with a group of more than 50 other PhD-students and Post-docs in the same field of interest.

The Graduate School « Global and Area Studies » combines the work of five doctoral programmes: the in the year 2001 established and supported by the DAAD until 2006 programme „Transnationalization and Regionalization from the 18th Century to the Present”, the research training group 1261 „Critical Junctures of Globalization“, the programme founded by the DAAD „The New Europe”, the programme „East-Central Europe in Transnational Perspective” (SMWK grant) as well as the bi-national programme „Global and Area Studies with a special emphasis in Peace and Security in Africa“ (DAAD grant).

The doctoral programmes have research focuses in regional studies and the exploration of globalization in common.